Music for a while shall all your cares beguile

Advent Calendar Day 13 – December 13 – O Magnum Mysterium (Poulenc)

OK, I’m up so late that it is officially tomorrow, and time for another Advent window!

This window is purely serendipitous. When I was wandering all over YouTube, trying to find someone – anyone! – who had recorded Byrd’s O Magnum Mysterium, I quite accidentally happened upon a version by Poulenc.

I’ve only sung one or two pieces by Poulenc, and that was a very long time ago, but I do like him. He really has a way with harmony – I’m sure I’ve described other composers as lush, but Poulenc takes lush to a whole new level. And I have a certain fondness for Poulenc also because twice in my life I have got myself completely lost in Paris and ended up in front of the house in which he was born (I think – though it may have been the one he lived in as an adult. Or perhaps both – I’m not sure I got lost in the same place both times). So stumbling across Poulenc purely by chance is something of a Catherine tradition.

Poulenc was a 20th century composer (a phrase that fills me with foreboding) and apparently “embraced the Dada movement’s techniques, creating melodies that would have been appropriate for Parisian music halls”. I honestly have no idea what they are talking about when they say that, but perhaps this is because I have only encountered his religious music.

(Hmm… according to the article I’m looking at, “A master of artificial simplicity, [Poulenc] pleases even sophisticated listeners by his bland triadic tonalities, spiced with quickly passing diaphonous discords.” Is it just me, or is that statement really pretentious?)

You can tell I know nothing about this piece by the way I am resorting to other people’s remarks about Poulenc to justify its inclusion. But I’m not going to justify it any further, because it’s just plain gorgeous and just a little bit spooky and entirely worth listening to even by unsophisticated listeners such as myself.